Unusual
by Pipsqueak Alchemist
Summary: Yeah. That one adjective was your life in a nutshell, basically, only becoming ingrained in stone when you and your eccentric Italian-American penpal get caught in mafia affairs while visiting Washington, DC of all places.


**Title: _Unusual_**

**Summary: Yeah. That one adjective was your life in a nutshell, basically, only becoming ingrained in stone when you and your eccentric Italian penpal get caught in mafia affairs while visiting Washington, DC of all places.**

**A/N: Yeah. No explanation for this one. Enjoy anyway!**

**Each chapter title is an adjective that is used at some point in the story. Unusual comes up quite often, whether directly stated or indirectly insinuated, thus the title.**

* * *

**~Chapter One: Misadventurous~**

**Adjective describing a person that experiences unfortunate events, description of someone unlucky.**

* * *

Your name is Jay Lynn Tsang, and you can tell that you're dying.

There was chaos all around. Gunshots in one direction, swords clashing in another, flesh hitting against flesh as someone fought in another direction, and yells coming from everywhere in what vaguely sounded like Japanese, Italian, and English.

You briefly wonder how the hell you had been put in this situation.

"Jay-san!" someone gasps. A teenage boy no older than you slides up beside where you lay crumpled on the ground, and his head hovers in your vision. Well, more accurately, spiky brown hair, not a head. It is the first thing you notice, and then your blurry vision focuses on the rest of the face, including two doe-like brown eyes.

"Dame-Tsuna," you mutter, coughing slightly. Something is coating your throat, and when you cough, you feel it cling to your lips as you choke on whatever it is. "Why aren't you fighting?" you ask tiredly, ignoring the small voice in your head that tells you the stuff in your throat and on your lips is blood, as is the stuff covering your abdomen and most of your body.

"I saw you go down," the boy, Tsuna, reports with a slight accent to his English. "Since you don't have any experience with the mafia, I thought I should come check –"

"I'm fine," you cough, though you know it is a lie. Tsuna knows it as well. "Just leave me here to rest. Fight, win, and then get someone to bring their ass over here and heal me."

"Consider it done!" an unnecessarily loud voice says gruffly, and soon enough, an older teen with shockingly white hair is leaning over you. "I'll have you healed in no time, to the extreme!"

You cough out a laugh, feeling blood spraying on your lips again. "Is Hobbit okay?" you ask cautiously, tone filled with unwanted worry.

If anyone knew you, Jay Tsang, they would know that you didn't worry unless you really, honestly cared. And about a Hobbit, at that, which would have confused anyone that didn't know you and your strange friend.

But either way, you normally don't care, and if you really did, you pretend not to. This was one of the rare, 0.001 percent chances that your stupid heart did decide to take notice when something was amiss.

As if knowing exactly whom your random question was about, the boy with the white hair and bandage across his nose let a grim expression slip across his face. "Unknown," he reports. "We can't find her."

You feel the words sink in, and then you turn to glance at Tsuna. "The Vongola pulled us into this mess," you say through grit teeth. "So as soon as you're done kicking Signore Creeper's ass, find her. Dead or alive."_ Preferably alive, so I can kick her ass for giving me a heart attack,_ you silently add in your head.

Tsuna merely nods. "Onii-san, take care of her," he says shortly, and his eyes suddenly take on the hue of a sunset. "I'll be back in a little while."

The boy nods, and watches Tsuna fly off with his gloves streaming what appears to be fire as he goes back to tending your wounds. Feeling light headed and drained from a long two weeks, though, your mind succumbs to black unconsciousness, and you think back on how the entire situation had begun.

* * *

**Two Weeks Previously . . .**

In all honesty, if you had been forced to look back on the short few minutes before being pulled into mafia affairs, it had been no fault of the Vongola's at all. In fact, it was more Toni's fault for spotting the anime store, and partially your own for relenting and going along with the cheery girl.

Before shit hit the fan, you, Jay Lynne Tsang, had been fairly certain that if the short, Hobbit-ish brunette Italian-American girl wasn't somewhat useful, you would have killed her ages ago out of frustration for her strangeness.

"Jay-Jay-Jay-Jay-Jay-Jay-Jay!" Antonia Merlo was jumping up and down like an overly excited toddler that had eaten too much candy. Pedestrians walking by cast her an odd, quizzical look, but quickly shook their heads and kept walking so as not to attract the crazy. "Jay, can we please go in there? Please?"

You are Chinese-Canadian and couldn't possibly be more Yin to Toni's Yang, so you vaguely wondered if it would be a crime to accidentally push the other girl in front of a bus. "Where?" you calmly asked instead. "Toni, I know you speak fast with your Italian-ness, but shut up and enunciate."

Toni made puppy dog eyes at you, which really shouldn't have worked, since the fourteen-year-old was only a year younger than you. "The manga store, of course!" she said, pointing across the street.

You turned, catching sight of the sign with Japanese characters above a small shop, and the words _Otaku's Heaven_ right below it.

"Oh hell yes," you declared, grabbing Toni's arm and running across the street while traffic was stopped by a traffic light.

It was a hot, humid day in Washington, DC where the two of you had been playing tourist while you were visiting for the next two weeks before you would head back to Canada with Toni in tow.

_Otaku's Heaven_ was just an added bonus to the trip.

"Look at all the anime and manga!" Toni gawked at the sight, looking, as the name of the store implied, like she was in heaven. "Okay, to the KHR section!"

The tiny brunette disappeared behind a row of books, leaving you to stand on your own near the front of the shop.

You casually looked over the titles, pulling a few mangas here and there to read the back. You grabbed the latest edition of Black Butler and kept browsing.

"KHR!" you heard a gleeful scream from further back in the store.

Rolling your eyes, you headed toward the back, where Toni was making her signature puppy eyes at an entire bookshelf of _Katekyo Hitman Reborn!_ manga.

"Oh God, yes," you sighed happily, going to join Toni in her gawking.

"Do you think we have enough money to buy them all?" Toni asked dreamily.

"Oh God, no," you sighed again, just as dreamily and airy as before. "I so wish we did, though."

"Yeah," Toni agreed. "Because manga and anime about kick-ass mafiaso and the Vongola is awesome."

"Scusa?"

At the random interruption, the two of you turned around to face a man that had made his way behind you. He was tall and thin, but at the same time, he seemed to have a strong presence that made up for his lack of physical intimidation. He didn't seem like the type of man anyone would want to cross.

"Ah, what do you need, sir?" Toni asked politely in smooth Italian. You quirked a brow, picking up a bit of what was being said from what you had learned in school and from Toni.

"Did you say Vongola?" the man asked, this time in Engilsh. His eyes were narrowed in an almost suspicious manner.

"Uh, si," you piped up warily. "It's a manga and an anime." You pointed at the shelves where the manga was lined up neatly in order.

Reaching his hand out, the man lightly traced his fingers along the binding, smirking a bit. "So all of the Vongola's secrets are revealed, hm?" he murmured in Italian, hoping neither girl would understand his rapid and quiet words.

Toni, whose parents spoke Italian constantly at home and had relatives from Italy over all of the time, caught exactly what the man had said. "I'm Italian, idiot," she hissed back in the foreign language. "Don't pull this stuff with us. Who are you?"

Even though you hadn't quite caught what the man had been saying, you caught everything Toni had said in reply. "What did he say?" you asked quietly, in English.

"He said something about the Vongola's secrets being revealed," Toni murmured, eying the man warily.

The man looked even more suspicious and wary than before, his eyes darting around as if afraid something would jump out at him. "Are you Vongola?" he asked calmly, finally training his dark eyes on the two girls and completely ignoring Toni's question about his identity.

You snorted. "Yeah, because a half-American and Canadian are part of an Italian mafia that doesn't even exist."

The man smiled ruefully. "Oh, it exists, alright," he informed them. "And now I'll have all the knowledge about them." He reached out to the books again, going for the first volume.

You boldly smacked his hand away. "Whoa there! Are you, like, some sort of psycho? Those aren't real!"

"The Vongola and the rest of the mafia are very real," the man snapped, ignoring the two of you and reaching his hand out again.

It was Toni that beat him to the punch this time, snatching the first five books from the shelf and cradling them to her chest. "Fine. Say we believe you for a second," she relented. "What makes you think we're going to let you take the books concealing some of their secrets?"

It was that question that would officially change your and Toni's lives forever and set events into motion.

The man smirked, pulling a gun from seemingly nowhere. "The Vongola aren't the only strong mafia out there," he said. "Now give me the books, signorina, or you will regret it."

As Toni's mind blanked with fear at the sight of the weapon, your mind was already thinking of dozens of ways out of the situation.

"Fine," you said cheerily, slinging your book-bag from your shoulder nonchalantly, as if a gun wasn't being pointed at the you and your traveling frenemy.

At the sudden motion, the gun's safety clicked.

"Whoa there, dude, just getting the books for you," you said, holding your hands up in a calm surrender gesture. Your eyes were narrowed in thought, and Toni realized that it was a dangerous face for you, because it meant that you had a plan.

Which meant that she thought the both of you were screwed.

"Toni, put down your bag and the books," you instructed, emptying your own backpack of its contents. Out came your wallet, which you quickly stuffed back into a side pocket, your subway passes – also stuffed into a side pocket – a couple of cheepy souvenirs, your phone, iPod, and camera – which were all shoved into side pockets with the wallet and subway passes – and soon enough, the bag was empty.

Toni nervously followed suit, and emptied her bag. She left her own valuable items in side pockets like you had, and waited for further instructions, hoping that your plan wouldn't get the both of you killed.

"What are you doing?" the mafia member in front of you demanded, backing up a step cautiously.

"I told you," you replied calmly – too calmly to be sane – grabbing a couple of the books and stacking them neatly in her bag. "We're getting the books for you."

As you slipped the tenth book into your bag, the mafia member stepped forward and snatched it. "You put your essential items in here. It seems like you planned to make a run for it, signorina."

You shrugged. "Do you want to carry forty volumes of manga?" you asked innocently.  
The Italian considered this. "Good point," he said gruffly, motioning for the two of you to finish.

Between the two of you, you and Toni had about sixty-to-seventy books in your bags altogether, though you had divided them equally so that neither of you would have to carry more than the other. Even the occasional double had been added, because your plan involved taking all of the books so that they wouldn't be read.

"What do you plan to do with these books?" Toni asked curiously, her dark brows furrowed in concentration as she struggled to pick the heavy bag up.

The small girl obviously wasn't very strong, and as you helped her sling the bag onto her back, you knew that brute strength wasn't everything. Though smaller and not as strong as average kids her age, Toni had quite the sharp tongue, and could be fast and agile when times called for it and she wasn't feeling lazy. You had seen things first-hand to convince you of that, even though she wasn't the strongest person out there, Toni could make someone way bigger than her cry.

One guy who had dared to challenge her while she was going through the Monthly Curse that all girls went through had gotten an earful after nearly trampling her in the street. The teenager had been taller and bigger, but you had watched on with mild amusement as Toni reduced him to cowering like a small child, tears running down his cheeks that would have been epic in an anime.

Ten minutes later, the two of you had gotten ice cream, and never mentioned the incident again.

Yeah, Toni could definitely be scary – though not as scary as yourself, you quickly amended – and as such you had decided not to underestimate her. It was lucky that no one else knew that like you did.

"I'm going to read them, of course," the Italian snorted, jolting you from your reverie. "And probably get the two of you to summarize everything."

You scowled. "Why the hell would we do that, bastardo?" you snorted.

"Maybe because I have a gun?" the man chuckled, a smirk on his lips and malice showing in his eyes. "Besides, I have ways of loosening your tongues."

"Dude, are you suggesting torture?" you asked in disbelief. You glanced over at Toni. "Is he suggesting torture?"

"Uh, yeah?" Toni replied dumbly, sticking oddly close to you. You could feel the tension rolling off of the younger girl in waves.

"Oh my god, that's something a creeper would say!" you hissed unnecessarily loud to Toni.

Still, your dramatics gave the desired effect. Toni cracked a small smile, and you smirked, knowing that not all shit had quite hit the fan.

Yet.

"Move it," the Italian man snarled, nudging you roughly with the butt of his gun.

Toni made a small sound at the back of her throat, and though you hated the girl – or at least put up a front pretending to, which you would never admit having – you felt bad. As you were forced to walk side by side to the front of the store, your pinkie wrapped around Toni's. It was a small gesture, a poor attempt at being comforting as the gun took turns brushing against your backs, but Toni relaxed slightly.

"Hey, what are you doing?!"

Shit. You had totally forgotten about the store's staff.

Turning, you, Toni, and the mafia member came face to face with two other individuals. The boy who had asked about their intentions was a teenager, barely older than Jay, with a nametag reading Hi, My Name Is Alfred. The guy that stood beside him was significantly older, and his nametag said Manager – Hi, My Name Is Bob.

If there wasn't a gun being pointed at you, you were convinced that you would be cackling maniacally at the weird names.

"Well, gentlemen," the Italian behind you said with an easy-going smile. "Consider this a robbery, if you must call it anything."

Frozen with shock, the two store employees could only watch on in horror as the man forced you and Toni from the shop and out onto the busy streets.

"You might want to put that away if you don't want to get caught," you said evenly.

After being forced to leave the store, the man had shoved you and Toni into a nearby alley, and you had been twisting and turning through the streets and small alleys since.

The Italian man with the gun remained behind you all of the way, giving you a nudge when you entered busy streets with people to call to for help. You and Toni always tensed, but you quickly got moving again in case the man decided to follow through on his implied threat.

"So," you asked warily as the three of you casually walked down an abandoned alley like nothing was wrong. "Who are you?"

For a long moment, the man is silent, and you think he is never going to reply. Finally, he calmly says, "I'm Giovanni Frazetto of the Dominatore family."

Toni's eyes narrowed. "Dominatore?" she repeated cautiously. "Dominators?"

"Indeed," Giovanni replied with a small smirk as the curious brunette turned slightly to glance back at him.

With a name like that, your resolve to get away hardened as much as it would. You gripped Toni's pinkie tighter, a sign that you would choose flight instead of fight as soon as you gave some sort of signal.

You exited the alley and came to stairs leading to the metro under ground. At that moment, you made a risky decision.

Moving your hold to Toni's arm, you started running forward. Toni leaped into action, going from a stumble to a full on run beside you.

"Hey, stop!" Giovanni barked, and several civilians turned to look on curiously at the ranting man that had shouted in Italian. Giovanni cursed under his breath, and ran after you.

You ignored everyone around, focused solely on getting yourself and Toni out of there. You ran down the escalator leading into the metro station, shoving your way through everyone, even though they grumbled angrily and cursed at you. The added wait of your bags slowed you down some and made running a lot harder than it should have been while knocking into many people, but the two of you were officially high on adrenalin and had the burning desire to get the hell away.

"We have to hop on a train," you said breathlessly, free hand reaching for the pass that had been stuffed in your bag's side pocket.

Toni copied the motion, and you let go of each other's hands to get past the machine quicker, sliding your cards through the slot and rushing through.

"Halt!" Giovanni roared, jumping over the fence-looking machine. Security was immediately on him, but you and Toni didn't stick around long enough to see what would happen. You continued running and running until you could no longer hear Giovanni's angry shouts.

"That was close," you murmured breathlessly, trying to calm your frantic heartbeat. "I didn't think that would work."

"You didn't think that would work?" Toni echoed, nearly screeching. She was gasping for breath as well. "Yet you risked getting us shot anyway?"

"Well, my plan worked out," you snapped. "He wasn't stupid enough to shoot us in a place full of other people. We're alive, and that's all that matters. Shut up and let's go."

Toni flinched at your harsh tone, but you refused to acknowledge the fact that you should feel guilty for getting angry with the sensitive girl so quickly. "Come on," you said firmly, still holding onto Toni's arm as you pulled the Italian girl into one of the trains that had just pulled up.

"We'll get off in a couple of stops," you murmured in explanation.

"We can't!" Toni hissed. "My mom is expecting us to meet up with her at the Reflecting Pool in –" She glanced at her watch. "— ten minutes!"

A couple of the train's other occupants glanced up at the two you, out-of-breath, curious as you found two spare seats, but other than that, you and Toni were completely ignored.

"We have to get these somewhere safe," you whispered, so as not to be heard by anyone else. "If Giovanni catches up with us – or worse, gets his _family_ to look for us –"

"It could be bad," Toni summarized. "I know, Jay! But if my mom gets too worried and we're missing for too long, they could put up an Amber Alert and report us missing, have our pictures everywhere by tomorrow morning, and give the mafia the necessary information to find our family!" She looked not only angry, but panicked and fearful as well. "And since your family is in Canada hours and hours away, you know who they'll go after first? The people _I_ care about!"

You froze, and seriously considered Toni's words. They were true enough; your own family was safe in another country, but Toni's family was only a short twenty minute drive outside of Washington DC. If the Italians were that desperate to get the manga and information, they would know where to go first for everything to be easiest for them if some of yours and Toni's personal information was put out for the entire city to see.

"Call your mom and tell her we're going to be out for a while," you suggested. "Tell her some museum is having a sleepover tour or some shit like that and we're going to be gone for a while.

Toni looked at you in disbelief. "My mom is a lot of things, but she's not stupid."

"Let me talk to her, then."

It was a known fact that Toni's mother absolutely adored you. She thought you to be extremely intelligent and witty, up to par with some of Toni's more . . . _eccentric_ family members, when it came to comebacks and keeping up with all of the Italian thrown around in Toni's home.

"Fine," Toni mumbled, handing you her phone.

The call to Mrs. Merlo was quick and easy. Though you felt bad about lying to the kind woman, you knew that both of you had to get as far away as possible with the manga.

"The art museum, correct?" Mrs. Merlo asked sweetly.

"Yuppers!" you replied with forced enthusiasm. "There's some kind of seminar and art program that's an overnight thing, so Toni and I were wondering if we could go. It starts in ten minutes, when we're supposed to meet up with you and Tina." Tina, a grumpy twelve-year-old that was the youngest Merlo child, had recently become your evil partner in crime, since you both enjoyed torturing Toni.

"That's fine," Mrs. Merlo said cheerily. "Will you girls be okay, though?"

"Of course," you replied warmly, smiling slightly. "I'll make sure the Hobbit doesn't get injured at all."

"Okay." Thinking that Mrs. Merlo was done talking, you drew away from the phone to hang it up, but then stopped when you heard a quiet whisper.

"Be safe. Look out for each other."

It caught you off guard, but you found yourself nodding, even though Mrs. Merlo couldn't see you through a phone. "We will," you replied quietly before disconnecting the call.

Toni looked anxious as you handed her phone back. "Well?" she asked, eyebrows raised expectantly.

You were looking out the window at the dark tunnel going by curiously. "She seemed to know that we were in trouble," you murmured. "Your mom told us to look out for each other."

Toni smiled slightly. "I told you my mom wasn't stupid."

"That she is not, Hobbit," you replied, refusing to look at the girl. "That she is not."

* * *

Toni knew the city like the back of her hand, which was an added bonus. As soon as you exited the metro station, you found yourselves a few blocks from Capitol Hill.

"Okay," you said, going into plan-mode. "We need to find a place for these mangas."

Toni perked up. "I have a place!" She held out her hand, waiting for you to give her the backpack.

You hesitated. "Shouldn't we both know the spot?" you asked warily. "In case something, well, happens to one of us?"

Toni's smile disappeared, and she deflated. "You don't trust me," she remarked nonchalantly, though you could see the hurt swimming in her blue-green eyes behind her thick-rimmed glasses.

_No_, you thought honestly. _I don't know who to trust, but right now, I'm more concerned with giving you a fifty-fifty shot of getting away should someone come looking for the location of the manga._ "We're in this together, Toni. If you're in danger because you know where these are hidden, then so am I."

Shaking her head stubbornly, Toni snatched the backpack from your unsuspecting grasp. The move startled you, since Toni normally went along with whatever you had planned.

"You may not trust me," Toni said quietly, slinging the backpack on her opposite shoulder from her own, "But I trust you enough to know that you'll have my back no matter what. This way, you won't be targeted for knowing the location."

"Toni," you said seriously. "I know you're American and have some stupid hero complex –"

"But I'm also Itlaian," Toni said with the barest traces of a smirk on her lips. "And that makes me half-coward, according to Hetalia. Let me do this, okay?"

You wouldn't describe Toni as cowardly, per se. She just happened to be unfortunately misadventurous, and often dragged you into whatever mayhem she caused.

Not only was she not totally cowardly, but she was also very manipulative and used all of her assets to her advantage, such as THE FACE. Toni made puppy eyes at you, and the your resolve crumpled quicker than you would ever willingly admit because of THE FACE that would make any heartless creature (read: Jay Tsang) take pity on her poor, broken expression.

"Fine," you snapped, unnerved. "But if this gets dangerous and we're in trouble, you share the location with me. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, Hobbit. You got it?"

"Got it," Toni called cheerily as she jogged off into a group of people. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes!"

So you waited, sitting on the steps of some shop that you didn't bother to find out the name of.

Ten minutes into your waiting, you got fidgety, and wondered briefly where Toni was. You mind immediately jumped to the worst possibilities, but before your imagination could go too far, some guy with shaggy-looking gray hair that looked suspiciously octopus-ish approached you. He wasn't much older than you, but a cigarette hung from his scowling lips.

"Do you know someone by the name of Toni?" he asked, though by the look on his face, it looked like he expected you to say yes.

You instantly shook your head. "No," you replied too quickly.

The boy rolled his eyes, and perched on the step beside you. "Look, I know you're lying," he said nonchalantly. "The Dominatore family put a hit on some girl named Toni and her companion."

You looked back on the day's events, and cursed under you breath as you briefly recalled saying Toni's name in front of Giovanni, but not revealing your own. "Yeah?" you said quietly instead. You looked over the boy once more, noticing that he looked suspiciously like Gokudera. "Are you here to give me a crazy rant that the Vongola are real, too?"

The boy smirked. "Well, yeah." He snorted, stubbing the cigarette onto the step to put it out. "I'm Gokudera Hayato, the Tenth's right hand."

You gaped. "You are another crazy psycho," you moaned, burying your face angrily in your hands. "FML."

You don't see Gokudera shake his head, but you're pretty certain that is what he does.

"Not psycho," he chuckled. "Slightly off my rocker, maybe. But not totally bat-shit insane like some people – like the marshmallow bastard."

You don't know whether to laugh because of the reference or yell because he's making fun of your favorite manga/anime villain.

Finally, you look up, dark eyes narrowed. "How did you find me?" you asked quietly, suspiciously . . ._ fearfully_.

He didn't seem to notice, and if he did notice your tone's slip, he said nothing. Instead, he shook his head. "It's complicated. The Tenth had to come here because the Ninth sent him here for something, and we – the current Vongola Guardians – have split up to look for you and your friend because the Ninth told us to."

"Why?"

He smirked. "Well, you seem to have some information about us. We can't let it fall into the wrong hands."

You opened your mouth to say something like 'I can take care of myself!', but before you can, his phone rings loudly, and he quickly answers it. He had a short, brief conversation in Japanese, and then hangs up. "They found your friend," he immediately informed you as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket.

You automatically thought of the worst once more. "The Dominatore?" you asked, panicked. "Shit shit shit –"

Gokudera snorted. "If they had found her, then they would have found you, too. No, you idiot. She's with one of the other Vongola Guardians."

"Who?" you asked, knowing that Toni would probably freak out if it were certain Guardians.

"The stupid baseball freak," he mumbled in reply. "That was him on the phone. Tenth told him to tell me that we're meeting back at our temporary base."

"Is Toni with Yamamoto?" you asked, knowing exactly whom 'baseball idiot' refered to. You briefly thought that Toni wouldn't mind being around the cheery swordsman, since they had a lot in common with their cheery personalities and their mutual love for baseball (and, in Toni's case, softball).

Gokudera just nodded at your inquiry. "Pray," he instructed. "He might just kill her brain cells with his stupid dopey shit."

You wrinkled your nose as he took out another cigarette. "Fine," you finally relented. "Take me to your leader."

And that, unfortunately, was the thing that doomed you in the end.

* * *

**Yeah. I started this a long time ago, left it in my documents, and was digging around to clean out all the junk, saw the beginning, and really wanted to finish it. I kinda remember where I was going with this. **

**If you like it, have a problem that you'd like to point out, leave a review and let me know!**

**~Pip**


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